Blood Orange
by ElegantButler
Summary: This is dedicated to those who read and enjoyed Chapter 21 of the book. But Alex didn't have a son in this case. He had a daughter.
1. Blood Orange

BLOOD ORANGE  
An Unofficial Sequel to "A Clockwork Orange"

She's just learned to walk.

Now she's standing there, smiling at me. So happy with her new accomplishment.

It's just me and her. Her mother left this world when she was born. But I don't hate her for it. I could never feel hatred for her. She's the new music of my life. Music of my life. How strange that I should use so poetic a phrase. How different my life has been since I learned that she was coming into my life. She's changed me so very much.

But I still feel the tantalizing pull toward violence. When I think of those out there who are as I once was. The gangs and the thugs who still wander this world, I want to rid the world of them to protect her. I want to become her knight in shining armor, guarding her from the dragons of the world. There I go with the poetry again. So distant that is from the NadSat that once flowed so freely from these lips.

I still remember the first day I saw her. The first time I held her in my arms and looked into those eyes, so much like my own. Like my own, and yet different. Not filled with the pain and regrets of a misspent youth.

I think of the schools she will attend. And she will attend them, I'll make sure of that. She won't be skipping like I once did, or hanging out at the milk bars. There will be girl gangs and cliques. But I'll do my best to make sure she doesn't link up with any violent groups. I know I can't always be there for her unless I become a teacher somehow.

Can you imagine that? I, your humble narrator. A teacher? Cleaning chalkboards, giving tests, and grading papers! Oddly, I can almost imagine myself doing that. Of course it's more likely I'd become the custodian all things considered.

Yes, I've change so much because of her.  
My little Alice.


	2. Alice Is Missing

BLOOD ORANGE -

Chapter Two

I think I told you that the worst moment of my life was when I had lost my favorite music to the treatment had once undergone in order to be released early from the staja.

That might have been true once, but no moment is worse than when you wake up one morning and find that your child has been taken from you. Not by death, no. But by an old enemy who just can't seem to figure out that there is no longer any reason to hold so much as a malenky grudge.

It was most definitely not a horrorshow morning.

I, your humble narrator Alex, had already lost my wife. I was not about to lose Alice as well. I had made mistakes in my life, and yet I was blessed with a wonderful child. That blessing was something I would never simply let go of. At least not until she was old enough to find a good man for herself. Mind you, that malenky malchick would have to pass any screening I cared to give.

I've walked the dark paths before, as I once said before. It is a road that I wanted to keep my daughter off of as long as possible

I pulled an old lockbox from the bedroom closet. Fitting the key to the lock I opened it and pulled out my little girl's birth certificate, my wedding papers, and a few things I'd saved from my wedding. I was never really sure why I had saved those two roses, now dried like the flowers hung on old country houses you see in ancient books.

Under all those things, my britva sat waiting for me to clasp it in my hand once more. I picked it up and my fingers found there way around it in much the same way that a hug finds its way around a long-lost droog.

I was going to get my child back no matter what it took. I wasn't going to kill anyone and end up in the staja again. I'd never see or hold her again if I did. But if I had to cut off a pinky or two just to make a point, then Bog help the man who touched my malenky child.

It wasn't going to be horrorshow for them either. Especially not if they were taking Alice down the dark paths that I swore to protect her from.


	3. Meeting Malenky Sam

Chapter 3

With my britva in my pocket, I make my way down to the old Korova Milk Bar. Going back seems odd, given how much my life has changed since Alice was born.

I'm only going there because it is the best place to get information on where all the gruppas might go and who is doing what and when.

There aren't many people here. A couple devotchkas are drinking their milk plus at the end of the bar, giggling at I don't know what. Not much in this world to laugh about.

None of my old droogs are here today. I wonder if they ever come in here. Do they think of me if they do?

My mind wanders back to the job at hand. Find my daughter. Find Alice.

Passing the giggling devotchkas, I head over to this chellovek drinking in the corner.

"Govoreet to me something, my malenky brother," I say. "what have you heard of a recent kidnapping?"

He ignores me and goes on drinking.

"Viddy this," I warn him, "Either tell me what I wish to know or I will clop you upon the head. I doubt those cheenas over there would say much about it if I did. My daughter is the one who has been taken, and Bog help the ones who stand in my way."

"Malenky Sam is the one you want to see," he tells me. "He is the one around here who arranges the ransoms between the kidnappers and the families. He can tell you where your daughter is."

"And he is where?"

"Nobody knows where he'll set up," this chellovek tells me. "It's different every week, Sometimes in the city, sometimes he uses an old house in the country."

"Home?"

"I think that's what he called it once." he tells me.

With a grim look on my face, I leave the table, trying to find anyone in the Korova who knows where Malenky Sam might be holed up for the week.

If any do, they're not saying. And I'm not taking the britva out here today. I haven't drawn it publicly in years and this isn't the place or time. I'll only use it if I have no choice. I'd prefer to stay out of the Staja for my molody devotchka.

With dwindling hope, I make my way to the door. I'm almost there when an old cheena, about fifty years I'd guess, waves to me from behind, as if I, your humble narrator, could viddy her out the back of my head.

Clearing her throat gets my attention.

"You're seeking Malenky Sam," she asks. "What will you give me to find him?"

"I have a little Pretty Polly on me," I offer.

"I am not a whore," she tells me, sternly. "You need to offer me something a bit more personal than that."

I don't want to part with my britva. I need it to rescue Alice from whoever has her. But I can't know where she is until I give it to this woman.

I stand for a moment at another crossroads of my life, trying to decide which road to travel

In the end, I reach into my pocket and pull out the little blade that has done so much hurt in the past. Now is the time to do horrorshow with it. To make amends for all the pain it has caused in my hand.

For a moment, I viddy it's handle that once fit so well in my hand. Then I hand it over to her.

She smiles and puts it in her pocket. Then offers me a seat.

I take it and offer my hand to shake drawing it back when she does not offer hers in return.

"Samantha Grey," she introduces herself. And it is then that I know she is the one I was looking for. "And you're Alex. Funny that. from your old pal's expression I expected something more fierce. Less… domesticated."

I'm not here for a bit of malenky chit chat. I just want my daughter back.

"The longer we stay here chatting, the higher the chance of someone hurting her," I say, "And Bog help you if she does."

"Tsk tsk," Govoreets the devotchka across the table from me. "Still using the nadsat at your age."

"Enough about my choice of language, cheena," I say to her. "Just tell me where Alice is."

Standing, Sam motions me to follow her. We step outside the milk bar and she points northward to a skyline off in the distance.

"She's in that city, in one of the buildings of that skyline. I don't know which. I only broker ransoms. I don't keep tabs on abductor locations."

That did not reassure me at all.


End file.
